With hookup culture come types of behavior and a set of expectations perhaps just as repressive to college women as any of the traditional gender norms or societal gender roles entrenched in our communities and institutions.

Though substance abuse can affect anyone, members of the LGBTQ community are particularly susceptible because of the unique stresses they often experience in relation to coming out and/or the negative social stigmas surrounding their identities.

I grew up in a religious and conservative family, in the very religious and conservative country of Saudi Arabia. My parents never talked to me about sex education. At school, the topic of sex was unq...

For the most part, I am a normal teenager in Amman, Jordan. I wake up when I hear my alarm and get ready for school. But perhaps unlike other 15-year old-boys, I have never fantasized about beautiful ...

I came out to my family at 25 years old. It was 2014, and while the country had made great progress in acceptance in terms of recognizing civil unions, putting more LGBTQ figures on television, and passing pro-gay laws, coming out was still a weighty experience.

I was standing on the top floor of a fraternity house in the early days of my sophomore year of college. Across the room, I saw an upperclasswoman I had heard about through the grapevine. She was well...

When I started putting together a book proposal for a collection of personal essays on domestic abuse in relationships, I knew I had to write about Tom,* my first boyfriend and first love. We were onl...

I remember the first time I was called a fag.
It was on a crisp fall day. I was walking to class. A man passed by me. It was casual, almost off-hand, like a bigoted stutter. It wasnât the first tim...

When I looked into the eyes of the first woman I ever liked â loved, even â I felt like I finally understood the famous words attributed to Edgar Allan Poe: âthe eyes are the window to the soul....

I love talking about sex with my girlfriends.Â Describing the intimate, raw, and sometimes awkward moments of our experiences with sex strengthens our bonds as women and as human beings.Â We talk ab...

Apparently, if you cut off half of your hair, start playing rugby, spearhead a LGBTQA group on campus, begin obsessing over Orange is the New Black, and break up with your boyfriend all within the spa...

I attend a small private school in Westchester, New York, which is a fairly privileged and wealthy suburb of New York City. Yet despite this privilege, our schoolâs health curriculum remained outdat...

âWow, theyâre beautiful,â I thought to myself at nine years old as I watched yet another music video by yet another girl group for the hundredth time. I admired these women, in all their scantil...

Patrice Brown, a fourth-grade teacher in Atlanta who is known for being at the center of the hashtag #TeacherBae, is being criticized in the media â not for her body of work, but rather her body at ...

I've long thought that Lizz Winstead â co-creator of The Daily Show, writer on the Huffington Post, comedian extraordinaire, author of Lizz Free or Die, and founder of reproductive rights organizati...

I realized that I wasnât straight when I was about 15 years old. Soon after, I got involved with my high school's Gay-Straight Alliance. During one of the club's meetings, the steering committee cha...

To My Middle School Principal (And to School Administrators Alike),
I've observed from afar, with horror and disgust, as you've punished young girls for their school attire. Nearly every day my littl...

The first time I heard Fergie's "M.I.L.F. $," I genuinely thought it was a joke.
"Wow, Fergieâs just desperately trying to stay relevant," my friend declared. I laughed in agreement. The song's bla...

There are millions of women standing in the closet â a closet that's threatening to burst open.
I was 17 when I first developed "feelings" for another woman, but it took me two more years to feel c...

In the wake of the Orlando mass shooting and throughout this month of LGBTQPIA+ pride, I have seen an immense presence of online support and love for the LGBTQPIA+ community â support for which I am...

We are now almost two months into the post-Lemonade universe, and it still seems the biggest public conversation the album has inspired is a debate about the true identity of "Becky with the good hair...